Method of retaining camber in rails



1937. E. N. OWENS ET AL I 2,091,609

METHOD OF RETAINING CAMBER IN RAILS Filed Sept. 12, 1936 iijdiif W; w A g, N I W Q i I i h $21k F IINVENTORS Roy 6. fvA/v .5 L I MErrNOn/EA/a ATTORNEYS R QAEAQXAQA vAvAcAxAcAcA Patented Aug. 31, 1937 .15..

2,991,609 j v r METHOD OF RETAININGCAMBER IN RAILS Emmett N. Owens and Roy G. Evans, Birmingham, Ala.

Application September 12, 1936, Serial No. 100,564

4 Claims This invention has reference to the cooling of rails as they come from the rolling mill and are delivered to a hotbed and then slowly moved by being pushed. or dragged along skids. The time elapsed in this movement'is suflicient to allow the rails to cool to the required temperature. The method'w'ill be described more fully hereinafter in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which 1 Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a cambered rail;

Fig. 2 is a partial side view of a hot bed and a cross-section of cooling boxes in which the rails are placed; Fig. 3 is a cross-section through the hot bed taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 15 is a section taken on line 44 of Fig. 2; Fig. 5

is a section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Referring to the drawing, as the rails R come from the rolling mills, they are delivered to one end of the hot bed, indicated generally by nu- 20 meral l0 and are then slowly moved by being pushed or dragged along the skids l2 of the hot bed. The upper faces of these skids lie substantially in a horizontal plane and the length of the bed is ample to allow a time interval sufficient 25 to cool the rails to the required temperature.

After the rails come from the rolling mill before being delivered to the hot bed, they are cambered, as shown in Fig. 1. Such cambering is desirable because of the unequal shrinkage,

30 which occurs, due to the non-uniform distribution of metal in the head and base of the rail.

Without the camber, the rails, after cooling,

would have a curvature reverse of that shown in Fig. 1 and would have to be straightened out 5 by special equipment at considerable expense, or

possibly rejected.

At the entering end of the hot bed, the rails lie on their sides, as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3. That is to say, they each rest with the side por- 40 tion of the head and an edge portion of the flange in contact with the skids. They pass over the hot bed in such a position to a point near the exit end thereof, at which location they are turned approximately ninety degrees, so that 4.5 the base flanges engage the skids. It is desirable, after the rails are turned up, to maintain the camber, as will hereinafter more fully appear.

The temperature at which the rail will lose its camber because of its own weight, when turned 50 up on its base on level skids, is approximately or substantially the same as that at which it is placed in cooling box C for final cooling. This temperature is approximately 932 degrees F. In practice, we have found that, if the rails are 55 turned up on their bases at a temperature much on their bases until the temperature of 932 degrees F., was reached, they would be below the required temperature before they could be placed in cooling boxes. To overcome this difficulty and to secure straight rails for the ultimate product, we conceived the method which forms the present invention.

The chief feature resides briefly in maintaining the camber in the rails at the exit end of the hot bed. We accomplish this by installing auxiliary skids l3, whose top or supporting surfaces are a few inches higher than the conventional skids I2, whose upper faces are in a substantially horizontal plane.

The skids I3 have their entering end portions l5 tapered or inclined so as to facilitate the transfer of the rails from the position in which they are supported solely by the skids l2 to the position, in which they are supported jointly by the skids I2 and the elevated skids l3. This manner of jointly supporting the rails intermediate their ends, so as to maintain the camber, is illustrated in Fig. 4.

The rails are not turned up to rest on their bases until after they reach the exit end of the hot bed. Thus, when they are turned at this portion, they are adequately supported in their mid-portion and thus will not have the camber flattened out, because of their own weight. After the rails have cooled to the required temperature, while being maintained in the proper cambered condition, they are placed in cooling boxes C in tiers, as illustrated in Fig. 1, bars, or other supports being interposed between the horizontal tiers. In the cooling boxes, the rails rest on their bases and upon being removed, after cooling, they are found to be sufiiciently straight to meet practical requirements.

The camber, to which the rails are originally formed, it will be understood, is such that both the head and flange of the rail are arched in the direction of the rail length and it is clear that, as the rail rests on the side face of its head, during the greater part of its travel along the hot bed, there is no tendency for the weight of the rail to disturb this camber. And, as the rail is turned, so as to rest on its base flange, the camber is maintained by supporting the rail intermediate its ends at points elevated above the normal horizontal plane of the hot bed. Thus, in short, during the first part of the cooling stage, the rail rests on its side and during the latter part of the cooling stage, the rail rests on its base, with its intermediate portion supported at a point above that of the normal hot bed surface.

The rails are transferred from the hot bed to the cooling boxes by means of an overhead traveling crane, from which is suspended an electromagnetic lifting device, conventionally shown at I6.

While we have described the invention 'with particular reference to certain types of cooling boxes and skids, it is to be understood that the drawing and detail description are to be interpreted in an illustrative rather than a limiting sense and that various modifications maybe made without departure from the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. In the cooling of rails, the method which comprises cambering the rails and moving them along the hot bed while resting on side portions and edge portions of the head and bases respectively, turning the rails and rigidly supporting them on their base portions intermediate'their ends at elevations above the points of support of said end portions.

tions of their bases at higher elevations than the ends thereof on rigid supporting members, so

' as to -maintain the camber while cooling and placing said rails in cooling boxes to finish the cooling while supported on their base portions.

4. In the cooling of rails, the method which comprisescambering a plurality of rails, resting the sides of the heads and the edges of the flanges respectively on the hot bed skids so as to avoid flattening them as they are moved along and turning the rails on the hotbed and supporting them on rigid supports with their bases at elevated pointsintermediate their ends so as to maintain the camber therein.

. EMME'I'I N. OWENS.

' ROY .G. EVANS. 

